“It’s pretty good value and if it’s one-tenth of the things we think we’re going to come off, then we should be smiling,” he said.

However, three years later Mxit is struggling to stop its subscribers moving to WhatsApp, WeChat, and other IM platforms.

MyBroadband asked Mxit about its latest subscriber numbers and financial information, but the company would not provide feedback on this.

“We are a private company and don’t disclose financial information,” said Ben-Carl Havemann, Mxit’s marketing and communications manager.

He did say that, from a commercial perspective, the business had enjoyed significant growth over the past year.

“Of the top 10 advertisers in the country, 8 have a presence on Mxit, and in many cases their communities have quickly grown into the hundreds of thousands, far exceeding other social media platforms,” said Havemann.